Gym Time and More About Me!

I finally did it... I joined the gym. It's not like I need a gym. It's not like I have tons of time and money that I need to spend. But I am on the porkier side and for some reason, nothing helps me lose weight like group exercise classes. So I did it. And I got my mom to jump on board too!


I started March off with a bang and I headed to the gym after softball practice. I did a Body Blast class- which was basically an hour off light strength training with dumb bells. It felt good! I wanted to stay for the next class which was a Boot Camp class, but I don't want to be so sore that I can't get back there tomorrow. So I hopped on the treadmill instead. I wanted to test myself to see if I could run a mile without slowing down to walk. (I still can. Whew!) I did half a mile and I wanted to stop. But I told myself to just get through a mile. And once I got to a mile, I decided to just keep going til I get through 20 minutes. So I did. And I burned just under 200 calories. So that about takes care of one of those damn Thin Mints I had earlier. As far as those other 8 go...


I do feel really good. I love working out. I don't know why I ever stopped!


Time for more question answering time!...


1. I am currently obsessed with my upcoming wedding. We are officially 102 days away. I'm pretty sure I'm right on track with where I should be, but I'm also pretty sure it's all I ever talk/think/dream about!

2. Today I am exuberant because I feel like I was pretty productive at work, I went to the gym, I'm getting to spend some good quality time with my boys tonight, and I have A LOT to look forward to in the coming weeks (and months!)

3. The age I am is 27 and the age I feel is old! I feel all these aches and pains that I never used to have, the kids are using terms now that I've never heard of before, I use terms that they've never heard before! Nah, I really feel about my age, maybe even younger. Life is good!

4. My favorite place is anywhere with Brian. Corny, but true. We genuinely have a great time together and pretty much any situation ends up being fun. Even when we're stuck in the emergency room all day on a Sunday!

5. Something I have been procrastinating is nothing, for a change! I always procrastinate, but this year, I've actually been on top of everything!

6. The last thing I purchased was a gym membership!

7. The thing I love most about my home is the love from my little family. It didn't feel like a home until Brian and Kevin got here!

ADD's and ABC's

I have been MIA for quite a while now, so I'm going to be jumping all over the place (hence the ADD)! But enough with the acronyms, I have exciting things to share!...

First of all, softball started and it has been COLD! It was supposed to snow yesterday, but it was a lot of hype for nothing. It really wasn't even that cold at all. In fact, I'm back in shorts right now. But during the week, I bundled myself up to brave the outdoors all day. Between the chilly breeze and my growing fear of UV rays (good luck with that, PE teacher!), I managed to create this monster:

Sorry for the bad quality... cell phone to email to blog... bad combo. Anyway, one of my 9th graders told me I look like an Antarctic gardener. I thought that was pretty hilarious.

Wedding Stuff
Moving on!... Biggest news... MY DRESS CAME IN! I'm going to go see it and try it on sometime next week... gotta get paid first!

I'm pretty sure I have my invites, rsvp cards, table numbers, escort cards designed, so my next step is to create some interesting and captivating programs. As far as I'm concerned, all the wedding stuff that I have left is all of the artsy-fartsy DIY stuff that I've been looking forward too. I think our last major task is to buy our rings.

Working Out & Eating Right?
So lately I've been working out more often than I was before (although if you follow this, you would realize that I've totally bailed on keeping a journal... I didn't mean too! I'll start again!), but it's still not as much as I used to. And that kinda really pisses me off. I mean, last year at this time, I had recently finished a half-marathon and was gearing up to run a full marathon. And now I'm scared to run even a mile because I'm worried I won't be able to and I don't want to find out. Blah. I've been doing my Turbo Kick, but I feel like I need more. With that being said, I just printed out my free 7 day pass to 24 Hour Fitness, and I'm planning on using all 7 days for group exercise classes. Effective tomorrow. I need to sweat and apparently I need extrinsic motivation. We'll see. I hope I like the classes, and I also hope I can talk the gym into giving me some sort of discount because $45 a month kinda blows.

I'm going to add another tab to the top and call it "Eating Right?" (...cue confused Ron Burgundy face)

I want to keep myself accountable for the food I eat (just like I'm not doing for my workouts. Ha!) Now if you know me, you know that my diet consists of chocolate, pepper jack cheese, Nutella, diet Coke, and currently, Girl Scout cookies. The plan is to actually eat more healthfully (healthily? healthy? healthier? Idk.)

I read a blog the other day where this girl lost 12 pounds for her wedding by going on the Paleo diet. She said she followed it very strictly and didn't even have to work out, and the pounds just melted off. (Nice, right??) I googled it. Apparently, you cannot eat any dairy products, any starchy products, any sugars, and it didn't say it specifically, but diet Coke and Nutella are probably off-limits too. Basically- it's all hunter-gatherer food, i.e. fruits, veggies, and lean meats. Hmmmphh. I don't think I'm strong enough for that business. But I would like to follow something that isn't too far off. (With maybe a cheat day for some cheese. And chocolate. And diet Coke.) We went to our favorite farmer's market today and got a bunch of fruit and vegetables. I'm going to make some chicken to put into salads for lunch this week. And I'm looking forward to it! And some thin mints!

So I know I won't be the epitome of a healthy eater over night, but I will be trying. And documenting!

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ABC's
Like, every other blog I read is doing this, and it brings me back to the fun times of good ole Myspace shenanigans, so I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Here we go, the ABC's of me...
A.  Age:  27. Oof, that's like, almost 30.
B.  Bed size:  We were on a Queen, but it was like, the most uncomfortable bed ever, so we switched back to the double that we put in the guest room. And hopefully after the wedding, we'll graduate to a King!
C.  Chore you hate: I'm not really a fan of washing dishes. Luckily for me, Brian is!
D.  Dogs:  I love them! Especially yellow labs named Duke, Chloe, and Kevin!
E.  Essential start to your day:  Cuddle time. The best part of my morning is hitting snooze and cuddling in closer to Bri for 8 more minutes. And then again for 8 more minutes. And then again...
F.  Favorite color: Yellow, turquoise, pink... I kind of have a lot. ;-)
G.  Gold or silver:  White Gold... which is a silver color...
H.  Height: 5’5"ish
I.  Instruments you play:  Tambourine, maracas, and I play a mean triangle
J.  Job title: Physical Education Teacher and Assistant Varsity Softball Coach
K.  Kids:  Looking forward to having some someday!
L.  Live:  So Cal
M.  Mom’s name:  Darlene
N.  Nicknames:  K-Rod, Hot Rod, Rodzilla, Rodsky
O.  Overnight hospital stays:  I've never had one (knock on wood)
P.  Pet peeve: I guess right now it would be people who think they can be PE teachers when they don't know how to play any sports and then don't bother to show up to practice the teaching skills that they so desperately need to succeed in a career that they thought would be easy but apparently is just too difficult for their pea-sized brain to handle, and upon receiving suggestions from seasoned veterans for increasing their potential for success, they say, "No." Ugh.
Q.  Quote from a movie:  "Who wants a Mustache ride?"
R.  Righty or lefty:  Right
S.  Siblings:  Jeffers!
T.  Time you wake up:  Well. The alarm goes off at 5:00. I usually hit snooze for like, an hour and 15 minutes or so.
U.  Underwear: Under where?
V.  Vegetables you dislike:  I'm not really a fan of corn.
W.  What makes you run late:  Sleeping in... damn snooze button!
X.  X-rays you’ve had:  Teeth, my head (softball), probably a finger here or there
Y.  Yummy food you make:  I'm actually pretty good at cooking, but my favorite is lasagna!
Z.  Zoo animal favorite: MONKEYS!!!! And although they're not usually at zoos, I really enjoy sea otters! Brian has taken me to 2 aquariums to visit them and they're so cute and playful and fun to be around!

 

I've been MIA for a while now, but for good reason... I've been knocking out wedding tasks left and right! Well, that, and after-school softball practice started last week. Our first game is tomorrow- busy times!

So one of the last MAJOR things we had left to do was pick a honeymoon. From when we first started seriously looking to the time when we finally booked, air prices went up soared! (No pun intended!) I really want to experience Italy with Brian and when I started looking at the end of 2010, airfare was around $750-850 pp. Recently when we looked, I couldn't find anything under $1450. Needless to say, Italy was out.

We tried to look into some Sandals vacations which sound really good because everything is included. BUUUUT, a Sandals trip for both of us would have been at least $5,000 when all was said and done, and for that much money, I'd rather go to Italy and explore ancient lands than sit around drinking my honeymoon away. But that's just me.

 What we ended up picking is a week long trip to beautiful Maui! We will be celebrating our first week as husband and wife driving with the top down in paradise! I'm so excited!

Another thing I'm pretty excited about is another DIY project that I was able to get started- and practically completed- this weekend...

I purchased photoshop through Amazon last week and it finally came last Thursday. I tried to figure it out on my own, but it's unlike any program I've ever really used, so I was feeling pretty hopeless on my own. Luckily for me, we had some friends over for a game night on Friday, and one of our groomsmen (Kevin) is almost finished with his masters in web design, so he was able to give me a quick tutorial. Saturday morning, I was off and running!



I've come up with a couple of designs and I like each new one more and more! Without giving too much away, this is the latest:

I made the background neutral colors and the flowers bright- which is what I'm hoping the actual wedding will be like. I really like it, but I'm going to work on making an even better one. And then after I've come up with a design I like, I can make rsvp cards, table cards, escort cards, programs... it's going to be awesome.

So that's what I've been busy with... and that's what I'm about to get back to! I'm going to try to check in more often this week.

Exhaustion

I feel like this:

But a little bit chubbier and not as cute.

I don't know what it is, but lately I feel like I hit a brick wall. Like I just don't have energy. Like my legs are made of lead.

I'm yawning by 6:45 and I want to be asleep by 8:30....

I don't know why, but I don't like it one bit.

I've been managing to tough out some work outs anyway, and I'm hoping that eventually, my workouts will start to pay off- size-wise and energy-wise.

On a side note, I've determined that it may just be more work to have a student teacher than to not, and that the average person cannot be a PE teacher. Oh, and I should get paid more.

Off to research more honeymoon stuff!

Las Vegas and Falling Asleep on the Couch Before 9... Cuz I'm Crazy Like That

This week felt L-O-N-G... and it looked something like this:

and this:

... but there wasn't as much beer involved as you might think.

Here are some of the highlights of my last week:

1- Las Vegas!
A week ago today we were heading to Vegas with Kevin and Rachael. We stayed at the MGM and had a blast. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

Me and Rach getting cabin fever in the car... caffeine, much?

Cutest dinner date ever!

At the Aria for dinner

There was a special- 5 beers for a dollar... diet coke was like, $4.50. Um, beer, please! 

Like I said, beer wasn't involved as much as you would think based on these pictures. Those five glasses were small, and it was practically the only alcohol I had the whole time. I know, I know, I have to cut back.


Considering those five beers were the most I've had in quite some time, I was feeling pretty silly by the end of dinner. I even proposed a question that everyone but Brian thought was funny (but I think they were laughing at me, not with me)- "If you drink a lot of beer, will you be better at basketball? Ya know, because of the hops?"


Haha, I still think that's funny!

 

Saturday night, I managed to convince everyone to walk over to the Bellagio and watch the water with me... it's one of my favorite things to do in Vegas. Clearly I'm not the gambler/drinker/party animal that is typically found traveling to this part of the country. You now, like the guy we saw jump into the Bellagio water. Like, for real. And it was cold. I can be an silly doofus from time to time. And I rarely turn down a dare. But I would never, ever do that. What a douche.

But I will dance in front of the Bellagio... like I said, I can be a silly doofus...

 2- My Mother
I'm so proud of her! I stopped by her house in the morning earlier this week to discover that she had just completed a workout! And it was her second week of consistent exercise! Woo-hoo mom! Keep up the good work!

3- The Lost Symbol
Brian finished reading this Dan Brown book on Saturday night in Vegas, so I started it. And LOVED it! I reinforced some personal philosophies that I have been trying to live by for the last couple of years. 

I'll do an entire post devoted to how a fictional suspense thriller relates to my PE teaching-5 mini beer drinking- falling asleep on the couch before sunset-life.

Oh yeah. It's been hard to get much else done this week because Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I was fast asleep on the couch well before 9:00. I keep telling you, I'm pretty rad. And like, my apartment smells of rich mahogany. 

So, that was my week in a nutshell... with a little bit of work thrown in!

We actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time.


But really.

Except maybe not the wallpaper. ;-)



 

 

Freshmen are dumb and channeling my inner Nick Nolte

Ahhhhh, I'm having way too much fun tonight!

But first things first... I'm going to start a new segment called 'Freshmen are Dumb'...because even the smart ones can be completely ridiculous at times! 14-15 is an awkward age. Period. They kind of remind me of dog Kevin... he's like, a full grown dog now, but I keep forgetting he's still a baby and he's still seeing and hearing new things every day. He tries to act tough, but he still looks to us to help him, he trusts us to do what's right for him, and he hides behind our legs when he's scared... that's exactly how my students are. They think they're these big important high school students, but really, they're just getting their feet wet in checking the temperature of the "real world."

Although the spread in my age difference has far expanded from theirs in the last 5 years that I've been teaching (I started when I was 22 and I had an 18 year old in my class... slightly awkward), they still feel comfortable enough with me to share their daily thoughts and pearls of freshmen wisdom. Because this is usually more entertaining than not, I'm going to start sharing them with you. Totally anonymously, of course.

Today's silliness came from one of my 4th period lovelies while we were doing this stretch:

I asked my class what muscles we were stretching and one of my boys yells out, "Your quadriceps!"

I told him well done and asked if anyone knew why this particular group is called the quadriceps. My same little Einstein says, "Because there's four of them."

I asked, "Four of what?" hoping for the simple answer of 'muscles.' His reply was, "Uh... um... ceps."

:)

SIDE NOTE: While I was looking for the picture above, I came across this one:

I think it's totally creepy, but it made me giggle because it reminded me of a fun little piece of photographic genius called The Timeless Art of Seduction a la Seinfeld...

Anyone else? Or is it just me?

**************************************************************************
I Turbo-Fired it up tonight with another kick boxing video. I love this stuff! But at the same time, it reminds me how out of shape I am because I used to teach it to people, like, in a real live gym (!) and now, it kinda kicks my ass! Oh well. I guess that means it's working?

Anywhay (cool wHip), I apparently worked so hard that by the time I was finished, I looked crazier and grungier than Nick Nolte after a drinking binge. Except he has a cooler shirt.

ME

HIM- I had to label it so you would know the difference

Am I right?? Okay, time for some syndicated Seinfeld. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some more half nekkid Costanza? Shrinkage, maybe??

I was in the pool!!!!

'Night!

Someone has a case of the Mondays!

lol... His name is Brian!  ^

I had big shoes to fill today... literally. I left the house in my flip-flops. Because that's what I do. It makes my feet happy. For three reasons... 1, if I try to put shoes and socks on inside the house, Kevin tries to eat them. 2, When I take Kevin outside right before I leave, I will inevitably have to walk on wet grass, thereby wetting my shoes and soaking through to my socks, leaving me with soggy feet for the better part of the morning. No bueno. 3, One of the best feelings in the world after a long day standing up and chasing after kids is driving home with the air conditioning vents blasting on my tired, sweaty, flip-flopped feet. I know that sounds gross, but really, it feels awesome and it reminds me of summer. And anything that reminds me of summer in January is a-okay in my book. (Plus, driving with flip-flops is slightly more safe than driving barefoot. I think.)

Anyway, my Monday was actually pretty sweet, except for my royal f*ck up that began my morning...

Like I said, I left the house in my flip-flops. I triple checked to make sure I had my socks. I moved some shoes out of my way in the garage before getting in my car. I even picked up one of Brian's flip-flops that had escaped from the rest of the shoe convention. I'm pretty sure my hand must've grazed my tennis shoes in an OMG-our-hands-just-touched-in-the-popcorn-on-our-first-date kind of way.

Buuuuuuut, low and behold, when I got to work, I discovered that I failed to pack my shoes. I had socks. And flip-flops. Not a good situation for teaching PE. Way to set the example, Kristen.

Luckily for me, I was able to turn my case of the Mondays frown upside down because my silly old mentor is a hoarder, as evidenced here:

Yep, all 3 of these pictures are from within our office

Because of her "your trash is my treasure" mentality, there is a pair of shoes (albeit, a size and a half too big) that one of my former colleagues had left behind after she transferred to another school. FIVE years ago. I tried them on, and although they were not my size or really even my style (sorry, Melinda!) I wore them all day anyway.

White socks with black shoes... not feeling it.

I am not coach M...

But after that little hiccup, the rest of the day was great. I got to meet my student teacher and she seems like she has it pretty together. I got some wedding stuff taken care of. I took dog Kevin for a walk around campus in the evening while Brian and Human Kevin ran the track. And I did some Turbo Kickboxing and ab work. Not bad, not bad!

Weekend Recap
Brian and Kevin are falling asleep on the couch (dog Kevin, not human Kevin- although I wouldn't put it past them), so I'm gonna make this quick...

I feel like we knocked a lot of stuff out this weekend. We were definitely busy!

Saturday I was stuck working a snack bar for softball for most of the day, but then we celebrated Brian's dad's birthday. After that, Brian and I headed over to Rachael's house for a party for her brother, so we got to hang out with her and human Kevin for a bit.

On Sunday, we took dog Kevin for a mini hike on a local trail (2.5 miles), then we headed to Crate and Barrel to register. There are a lot of cute things there, but it's stuff you can get at Target for like, half the price. I can't justify spending more than necessary... even if I'm not actually the one spending it. So I think we'll end up really registering elsewhere. Oh, and I think we both decided we'll take the moms along next time, because quite frankly, I have no idea what a melamine reamer is (it sounds dirty. Maybe we should get one?) or if I'll ever really use a melon baller. (Hmm, that sounds dirty too. Perhaps there are more to these items than one would think, no?)

After our morning events, we did what all slightly overweight engaged couples dream of... we went to our first cake tasting! And believe it or not, I think we found our baker. Now I can breathe a little bit easier. But just a little. But we still might go to some other tastings. Because when else will we get the chance to? And we're fat like that.

We rounded out the night by meeting my parents for our traditional Chipotle Sunday dinner. (Our Mexicali version of Sunday Sauce... my Italian grandparents are probably rolling over in their graves right now.) Then it was back to the house where we researched some more honeymoon spots... which needs to be booked, like, yesterday.

We're looking into Sandals (which one, I have no idea...)or one of the Hawaiian islands. And of course, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for Italy. Any suggestions or helpful hints?? :)

Okay, time to put these boys to bed! ♥

Weekend Recap and Polar Bears

Not this polar bear...

Dukie, my boy!

A whole different kind of polar bear! See, I finally got my mom to help me with the official guest list (for now anyway, it seems to change all the time!), so I've been starting to address my save the dates. If you remember, they have a vintage Hollywood vibe to them.

In fact, the whole wedding has a vintage theme going on, which I think is pretty awesome.

Anyway, I made my save the dates postcards for 2 reasons. One reason is that I was able to give it more character by making the back look like an old distressed postcard. The second is that you can save some money on postage. In fact, I saved $24- more than half of what I would have paid if I had put the cards into envelopes. There was only one little glitch...

I was working on wedding stuff on the floor of the weight room today at work...

Do you notice the stamps? They're POLAR BEARS! Here's another view:

Kinda throws off the whole vintage vibe, eh? A couple of thoughts ran through my head when the lady that was helping me brought these out. I thought maybe if I asked nicely, she would pull out some pretty ones from a back drawer somewhere. Or maybe I should get mad and demand some stamps with flowers. Or maybe I should just explain that these stamps were for a wedding. But in the end, I just said thanks and I took my polar bear stamps. Oh well. :)

*******************************************************************************

Weekend Recap:

Friday night was pretty mellow... we just stayed at home and I was actually asleep by 9:30 because I had a big day planned for Saturday...

Saturday morning I woke up at 5:30 to meet my buddies Alexis, Michelle, and Melissa for a sunrise hike! It was super windy, but we toughed it out anyway!  

Alexis, Michelle, Me, and Melissa- I can barely open my eyes in that wind!

After the hike, I came home to hang with my boys for a little bit, then it was on to work. We're helping host a JV tournament for the next 3 weeks and the varsity team is running the snack bar. Perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon. (Can you smell the hint of sarcasm?) We did cap the night in a nice way though- we went out to dinner with Human Kevin and Rachael and some of their friends for Kevin's birthday. It was a very nice evening out!

Sunday, we woke up early again and went for a sweet little 4.41 mile hike back at Runyon Canyon. No celebrity sitings this time, but we did run into Dog Kevin's brotha from another motha Ike and his friendly owner that we met at our last tour at Runyon, so Kevin was pretty jazzed about that! Then we met Brian's parents for lunch and my parents for dinner. Because we really like to eat. And because we REALLY like our families. :)

I was lucky enough to get Monday off. My dad helped me wash and detail my car in the morning. Then when Brian came home, we went and saw Little Fockers. It doesn't quite match what that hilarious group of actors did in Meet the Fockers, because in my opinion, that movie was comedic gold! But this movie was extremely cute, and I love, love, LOVE this ensemble of actors! 

From there, we walked around the mall a bit, and then it was back to my parents house for another dinner with the crazies (Talk about meeting the Fockers... these people are nuts sometimes! It's a wonder I made it out so normal! lol) to work on that list.

And that brings us back to today and my polar bear fiasco.

♥

 

Anyway, not that anyone reading this will care, but at work today, I learned a piece of good news and a piece of not so good news. The not so good news first: My sweet little class of 17 kids will be no longer. I knew it was too good to be true. No class is ever that small. EVER. They're going to add 20 kids, so it'll go up to 37, which in reality, is still a small class. Oh well. On with the good news! I found out that I will be getting a student teacher for two periods! This means that I will be teaching someone how to teach, and I get the title of Master Teacher! Can you feel the power?? ♥

Off to go address some more polar bear cards!

5 Things That Made My Day

(In no particular order)

1- This face:

Dogbert

2-  My old high school coach is now my colleague and she cracks me up... today, everyone was freaking out about The Great Horoscope Change of 2011 and our TA tells us he doesn't even know his actual birthday because he was born in some remote Indian village, so when his parents moved here they just guessed when he was born. Then Coach says, "Yeah, I've heard of that before. Once I had a girl from El Salvador that didn't know her birthday." We were all like, "El Salvador?" And she's like, "Yeah, El Salvador, or some other little town in Mexico." I start cracking up and say, "El Salvador's not in Mexico, it's an entirely different country," to which she replies, "Well it was somewhere out in the bushlands." lol, what the hell?? I practically fell out of my chair laughing.






3- This face:

Bri guy

 4- I did my Turbo kickboxing today... that's two days in a row of exercise! And my abs are a little sore... I missed that feeling.  I forgot how much fun TKB is. You sweat like crazy and when you're done, not only are you proud of yourself for working so hard, but you also feel like you can kick someone's ass. I'm starting to feel like me again! Finally!

5- I got to eat dinner and catch up with 3 of my best friends from high school- Alexis (my Maid of Honor) and our friends Michelle and Melissa. We all played softball together. We were talking about high school and I reflected to them that some of my best memories were when we used to stay after school for hours and just play- before the season was even close to starting. We used to play over the line, or Alexis' dad would come and hit ground balls to us. I used to love those days, being out on the field, smelling the grass, playing ball with my best friends. We used to hang out all the time when we were younger. But you know how life gets in the way. I'm going to try really hard not to let that happen again. The great thing about these girls is that we graduated almost 10 (TEN??!!??) years ago, and we're able to pick up like we just saw each other yesterday! They are the sweetest girls, and it felt so good to reunite with them, even it was just a couple of hours at a Mexican restaurant. ;-) Oh, and bonus- when we got our food, Michelle and I both look down and say, "Yum!" at the exact same tone, at the exact same time... which I guess isn't that spectacular if you weren't there... or even if you weren't me or Michelle... but I was pretty amused by it!

I hope you all had as great a day as I did! ♥

Thee, a-thee, a-thee, ah, that's all, folks!

List maker, list maker, make me a list!

First things first... Breakfast today was upsetting disastrous!!!

See, oatmeal and I have always been at odds with one another. We've tried to settle this before. I always think, "Oatmeal, maybe this time you will redeem yourself and your gluey texture won't make me gag," and sadly I'm always disappointed. But the other day on our shopping excursion, Rachael and my mom started talking about oatmeal and they made it sound extraordinary. So when I went grocery shopping on Monday and saw some 'heart healthy' fruit and cream oatmeal, I optimistically picked it up. I had some Tuesday and was pleasantly surprised. It was actually good. It was just a pain to clean the stickiness that is oatmeal off the bowl when I was finished. 


This morning, I was really looking forward to a bowl, but I decided I was above cleaning said bowl. So my next decision was to use a paper bowl. Naturally.

No use crying over spilled oatmeal

Big mistake. The bowl threw up oatmeal all over my microwave. Awesome.


I didn't have time to make another bowl, so I opted for cold cereal instead. Oh well. At least my belly was full, right?


***********************************************************************************


I think I have ADD. Or just a whole lot going on. Either way, I tend to forget things, confuse myself, double-book myself, interrupt myself, forget what I was about to say, forget what I was about to do... the list goes on and on. And speaking of lists, I love to make them. I make them when I need to get things done by a certain time, when I have errands to run, when I'm packing, when I want to make sure I don't forget something from the store, when I need to talk to people about certain topics, when I have ideas that I can't get too right at that moment... did anyone notice that whole sentence was a list?? I sound like Bubba from Forrest Gump! I need help, I can't stop!!! :) 


Well today, I think I filled my quota of lists... And here's a list of lists to prove it:


1- My list of worksheets and resources for the kids and their first unit of health. (Which can be viewed in all of it's awesomeness HERE)


2- My list of things I want to accomplish for the wedding by the end of the month:
-Find a baker for the cake
-Honeymoon destination picked out and reservations made
-Find a florist
-Have my save the dates (STDs, lol) mailed out


3- My list of wedding stuff to do tonight:
-Update my wedding address log
-Confirm the addresses with both moms
-Confirm the guest list in general
-Start addressing envelopes


4- My hourly list of what I want my basic week day to look like:
-6-7am: wake up, get ready
-7-3:30: work (hopefully with a run on the track at lunch. More about that in a sec.)
-3:30-4: get home, play with Kevin
-4-5:30: work out
-5:30-7: dinner (this should allow for prep time as well as eating)
-7:00 on: FREE TIME! Which isn't always free...


5- Things that need to get done during "free" time:
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6- My list of workouts
It's actually part of my workout tab... up on that bar up there ⇑ 
Before, I was just listing my workouts as I was doing them. The list was looking pretty sad and sparse. So what I decided to do was make my list ahead of time to hold myself more accountable for working out everyday. Once I complete the workout, I'll give myself a check mark, like this:
✓ 1/12/11: 1 hr Turbo KB + abs
1/13/11: _______ miles on track at lunch...... 30 min Turbo KB + abs
1/14/11:_______ miles on track at lunch...... +abs
1/15/11: Hike....... 30 min Turbo KB + abs
1/16/11: _______ mile run/walk................ Turbo KB Core & stretch workout


If I skip a workout, I'll cross it out and give myself a sad face, like this:

1/12/11: 1 hr Turbo KB + abs
1/13/11: _______ miles on track at lunch...... 30 min Turbo KB + abs
1/14/11:_______ miles on track at lunch...... +abs
1/15/11: Hike....... 30 min Turbo KB + abs
1/16/11: _______ mile run/walk................ Turbo KB Core & stretch workout



If I change workouts, I'll cross out the old one and just add the new one, with a check, like this:

✓ 1/12/11: 1 hr Turbo KB + abs 2 mile run
1/13/11: _______ miles on track at lunch...... 30 min Turbo KB + abs
1/14/11:_______ miles on track at lunch...... +abs
1/15/11: Hike....... 30 min Turbo KB + abs
1/16/11: _______ mile run/walk................ Turbo KB Core & stretch workout

Sinchy!
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Today I earned my check mark! I did an hour of turbo kick (the best aerobic kickboxing ever!) and then I did my own ab workout, which- if you're looking from really awkward angles, looks something like this:

Playing with balls again...

My friend George taught this one to me... you prop yourself up on your elbows and balance the top of your feet/bottom of your shins on the exercise ball. Then you bend your knees in to your chest by rolling the ball down to your toes. It's not easy to balance, and since your body is constantly trying to correct itself, it's a great core workout. I did 3 sets of 10. (If you think that sounds wimpy, than try it yourself! It's a challenge!)


In between those sets, I did another ab exercise with the ball....

Roll to your back and rest the ball on your shins while keeping your knees at 90°. (This part's pretty crucial, or the ball will roll right off, and there goes your workout!). You crunch up, grab the ball, bring it back down and touch the floor behind you, then bring it back up to place back on your legs. You're actually going up and down twice in one rep, so it's like a 2 for one deal. A BOGO. Let's go shopping! (See, ADD! I told you!)


Anyway, I also did 3 sets of 10 of these, right after the first exercise. 


And finally, at the end of each set of those exercise, I did planks. I held the first for 30 second, the next for 45, and the last for a minute.

Trying not to cry or pass out in front of the camera

I realize you might be asking yourself, "What is Kristen wearing?" Well, I hadn't really thought the whole self-portrait-while-you're-working-out thing through, so it ended up being a fantastic dose of cleavage. Sorry folks, this just isn't that kind of website. I have a reputation to maintain here!


Anyway, the basic workout looked like this (list time):
Circuit 1= 10 exercise ball foot roll things, 10 exercise ball crunch and grab things, 30 second plank
Circuit 2= 10 exercise ball foot roll things, 10 exercise ball crunch and grab things, 45 second plank
Circuit 3= 10 exercise ball foot roll things, 10 exercise ball crunch and grab things, 1 minute plank 


It's quick and dirty and I love it!

Oh, and I timed myself with my phone which was laying on the floor in front of me. It beats counting 32 mississippi, 33 mississippi, 34 mississippi...

And of course, I had my cheering section up in the stands...

They sure are special...
♥